Clock signals are commonly used in electronic devices for a variety of purposes, including circuit operation, synchronization, and the like. Clock signals are created by a clock generator circuit, which, for a high speed clock generator, includes a ring oscillator.
Clock signals have a number of features or characteristics. These include duty cycle, waveform shape, min/max values, frequency, and the like. For example, waveform shapes include sine waves, square waves, and triangle waves. The duty cycle is the time a signal spends in one state as a fraction of the total time. Thus, for example, a signal that is on half the time, has a duty cycle of 50 percent. Min and max values refer to minimum and maximum amplitude values for the clock signals. The frequency refers to the number of cycles per second.